Get LinkedIn Connection Alerts

LinkedIn continues to be one of the most underutilized social platforms in insurance agencies. LinkedIn will help producers increase their network of potential prospects, centers of influence, and current clients. And just like traditional networking – these connections are valuable.

I have written quite a bit on how an insurance agent can use LinkedIn. I even created an online course that takes you step-by-step through the process of maximizing your LinkedIn presence. I am always looking for additional tools and techniques that will help me better master my LinkedIn presence.

One of the most powerful uses of LinkedIn is to harness your existing network and ask them to introduce you to people they are connected to and whom you would like to meet.

One way to do this is to review the contact lists of your best connections. You can also use the search function to find people you’d like to connect with and see what common contacts you might already have. You then ask for an introduction. Remember, it probably is better to actually call or email directly and ask rather than using the LinkedIn request process. This allows you to personalize the conversation.

The problem with this method is it takes a lot of time to repeat your searches so you can find new people who are being added to your and your contact’s networks.

Fortunately, I have come across a tool called OFunnel that will send you an alert automatically when new people are connected to your contacts. You simply give OFunnel permission to link to your LinkedIn account, and then create the alerts.

OFunnel will send you an email when people from a specific company or with a specific job title or a named individual gets connected to one of your existing contacts.

So, for example, if you identified a company that would be a good prospect and you want to get an appointment, you could create an OFunnel alert to let you know whenever anyone you know connects to someone who works at that company. You can also create alerts for specific words in a job title.

OFunnel is new and currently is in Beta mode. I have been testing it for a few weeks and it seems to work as advertised. They just announced that in early January 2014 they will begin charging a $15 per month subscription fee. For that you will receive:

• Unlimited filters and Alerts.
• Access to OFunnel through email, their website and Hootsuite.
• All future enhancements to their Alerts product.
• The ability to influence future development of OFunnel Alerts.

Mastering your LinkedIn presence will help you connect to more prospects and sell more insurance. OFunnel is a tool that will help.

Have you used OFunnel? What was your experience? If not, what other ways do you connect to others on LinkedIn? Let me know.